Group C
by nightswitch
Summary: OC fic. The third group in WICKED's experiments includes your female OCs that you submitted, along with Newt, Minho, and Thomas. Follow your old favorites along with some new wild cards as they navigate the deadly world of the Glade and struggle not only to save their lives, but their love too.
1. Selected OCs

**A/N: I know i NEVER do an author's note beforehand, but i just wanted to let you guys know that it was SOOO difficult to select characters! All of them were amazing! In the end i'd gotten so many that i was really just looking for diversity, both in attitude and personality, and just a tad bit in physical appearance (we can't have a bunch of clones).**

**An issue that frequently came up was that all of you guys (like me) are Newt lovers! Almost every single preference was listed as Newt! **

**So know that if your character wasn't selected it wasn't because I didn't like you(/her?), it's because there were just so damn many! **

**Another thing was that i tended to favor the more lengthy and in-depth profiles over the more vague ones. "I'm shy. I have straight blond hair and brown eyes. I'm a Runner. I like Newt." doesn't really tell me much about you. **

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><p><strong>IMPORTANT:<strong>

Not all selected characters will be main characters. If your character is a side character, don't fret, they will get plenty of "screen time" and perhaps even a romance. Do not panic if your OC doesn't show up the the first couple of chapters, give it time. You may continue to submit OCs if you're late the the party, i might choose to add them in later if the submission showcases exceptional and unique qualities. There is no guarantee that you'll end up with your listed preference in the story, i paired whoever i thought was best. Also I couldn't fit all of the main characters on the cover image, so you have my apologies. Thank you!

MAIN CHARACTERS:

**Amelia (Moo)**

Owner: AhsokaTano11

**Katelynn Dux (Kate)**

Owner: Kate (Guest User)

**Katrina**

Owner: Kat (Guest User)

**Amber (Bambi)**

Owner: rebma89

**Clara (Clar)**

Owner: AwkwardBookworm (Guest User)

OTHER CHARACTERS SELECTED: 

**Theodora**

Owner: dorina16able

**Arielle**

Owner: artpunkxX

**Kelly (Kel)**

Owner: xNewtx

**Night (Switch)**

Owner: nightswitch

I've also been looking at Charlotte, Natalia, and Jacey, but it's still undecided whether or not i will have them come in later, i _do_ already have so many characters to work with.

Thank you for submitting, i love you all!


	2. Chapter One

**GROUP C**

**Chapter 1**

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><p>"The boy never cried again, and he never forgot what he'd learned: that to love is to destroy, and that to be loved is to be the one destroyed…"<p>

_-Cassandra Clare_

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><p>part i: The Unknown<p>

_'Am i in hell?'_ The girl thought.

Well at least she knew she was a girl, for she didn't know much else.

She knew because the voice in her head sounded like velvet or a knife slicing through soft yellow butter, not high and fluttery, but with smooth edges, and somehow that meant she was a girl.

_'No, this can't be hell,'_ She sniffled and wiped her forehead, but it didn't do much to help the sticky, molding-to-your-skin heat, it only made her knuckles wet and slick with sweat. _'Hell isn't hot, hell is cold.' _

She thought so because just before, when she'd first awoken in the dark, metal room, she'd pressed her fingers to the milky flesh of her wrist and it'd felt numb and cold like a dead body on a lab table, like fear prickling hairs on your spine, like nothing at all, and being alone in dark rooms with out anything to hold onto, not even your first name.

_'My name is— I'm.. I'm…'_ And she didn't know.

_'This room is cramped. I have thick, dirty blonde hair, and dark brown, up-turned eyes, like a cat's.'_ A stream line of thoughts came from her head, like tied ribbons being pulled from a clown's pocket.

She was searching for _it_.

Her name.

Perhaps it wasn't lost.

_'I used to have bangs, but i let them grow out. I hate bugs-'_ She whimpered when the cage around her suddenly lurched upwards, swaying side to side in its wake (making her stomach do somersaults) and making a warbly, rattling sound, like thin metal sheets being knocked on.

A whimper was the biggest noise she'd managed to make thus far.

She'd tried to cry out at first, but all that sounded was a hollow croak, and the echo of the metal room shouting the same croak back at her made her feel scared and small in her skin.

How big was this thing anyways?

Her throat felt constricted, like iron rope was vining around her neck.

_'I-'_ She forced herself to continue. _'I like biology. I don't believe in God.' _

She didn't even know what that meant, but she knew it was true, and she'd hoped if she kept digging in her mind and pulling out a train of constant truths she'd get to one that mattered.

_'I wish i didn't slouch. I wish i was more of a leader. I miss my mom.' _

_Mom._

She felt a tug of longing in her chest and the word had a ring to it. A ring, but no meaning.

_'I ask too many questions. I don't wanna drown.'_ She finished only because she was so drained that she physically felt a pulse in her brain, a small pounding at the base of her skull.

_'See.'_ She thought defiantly, _'I know _**some**_ things.' _

She knew some things, but still not her name.

Perhaps it wasn't lost.

Maybe it was stolen.

.

Then there was a great shudder, until the floor beneath her stilled completely.

There was a grating, rusty sound of heavy doors being pried open by mechanics, followed by an expanding line of light above her, like a sword, piercing through her dark-accustomed eyes sharply.

The girl groaned and tried to stand, but her limbs were wobbly and unsteady, like a newborn calf's.

When the blinding blur of white at last faded into solid colors, blinking away the darkness, all she could think was _'What the hell is this place?' _

She peeked over the edge of the box (which turned out not to be that big after all) and saw a world of faded green with a sky full of cement.

There was a thin white line, as wide as her fist, painted down the center of the box and stretching out, long and straight, all the way across the field on either side of her.

It could've been a massive stadium, a post-apocalyptic coliseum, if it weren't for the trees; trees in patches everywhere, obscuring the other sides of the looming gray walls, and there were shabby wooden structures barely peaking above the trees in the distance, drowning in the sea of green.

But around her was a field, a clearance, making _her_ the tallest thing in sight.

"Hello?!" She yelled, and although her voice sounded a little rusty, at least she could speak now.

But the word died quickly in the clearing, not echoing, but fading out in the sky.

No one had heard, if there even _was_ anyone to hear her at all.

With a huff, she hesitantly heaved herself out of the ground, and the air wasn't much cooler, but at least there was a slight breeze, rather than the stale, tomb-like air of the box.

When she stood she felt naked and exposed in the middle of the vast field, in the middle of the line that split the place into two sections.

The floor underneath her was thin, hard, dry, yellow and green short-grass, like there was cement underneath.

Then there was a rustle, and from her left side a small figure burst free from the line of trees and was hurtling towards her at full speed.

The girl shuffled on her feet anxiously.

Should she be sprinting away from the stranger? Should she be greeting her?

But there was a sense of urgency about the girl running towards her that screamed "danger".

As the girl was almost upon her, she could make out her face more.

She had a thin, oval-shaped face with a beauty mark underneath one eye and faint freckles dusting the bridge of her nose, freckles the same tan color as her chestnut hair that was swooshing around her neck as she sprinted over.

She looked like a warm-brown blur (like the color of fox fur or dry earth), from her light-olive skin tone to her dirty beige clothing.

The girl, at the last moment (panic seizing her), tried to back-pedal away, but it was too late.

"What are you doing?! Get off of me!" She yelled as the other girl slammed into her and knocked the air from her lungs.

"My name is Clara and we don't have time. Come with me!" Clara spoke rapidly, with big, brown, frantic eyes, trying to grab the girl's wrist, but the girl slapped her hand away.

Clara rolled her eyes and the girl grimaced, a little offended.

"The Reavers are coming!" Clara shouted heatedly.

"The _what_?! Let go of me-!" She tried to argue.

"The _Reavers_, the savages, the psychopaths with spears, you slinthead!" Clara explained irritably. Clara was physically stronger, and far more desperate than the girl. "I'm trying to save your life!"

Then Clara's gaze fixed on something behind the girl and she stopped tugging at her arm for a second, frozen with something that looked a lot like fear.

The girl turned to see.

Far in the distance, from the opposite side of the line that the girl came from, a person wearing a rectangular mask with leaves lining the top, only the size of her thumb from that far away, was running towards the box too.

Then there was another, then another, falling out from the forest with whistles like leaves from a tree.

With the masks and the whooping sounds they made, the girl couldn't even tell if they were human, and suddenly being abducted by this "Clara" person was seeming like the better offer.

The girl cried out as Clara pulled too hard on her arm, and lashed her foot upwards, kicking her in the stomach.

Scratch that, the girl wasn't going to be abducted by _anyone_.

"Get way from me!" The girl screamed.

Clara was doubled over in pain, her breaths reduced to ragged grunts, but when she squinted up at the horizon she still saw the Reavers heading towards the Box, heading towards _them_.

Her luck was running thin.

"I don't have time for this klunk, i am NOT dying for a Greenie!" She announced defeatedly.

Clara muttered "Sorry, Greenie." and with the quick swing of her fist meeting the side of the girl's head, the girl's vision went black, and she felt her limp body being dragged out of the clearing.

* * *

><p>Okay, now the girl was just getting sick of the darkness, getting tired of the confusion.<p>

She came to her senses gradually and eagerly.

_First she felt a wet sort of warmth, a weight of a damp cloth on her forehead that felt like a palm. _

_There was also a pressure behind her eyes, willing her to open them. _

_A throbbing pain and the smell of dust that tickled her nose and made her feel like she was on the constant verge of sneezing._

_Voices._

The notion that she was not alone made her eyes bolt open.

She was on the floor in a small circular room with wooden walls made from several, long sticks bound together tightly with twine.

The three girls arguing seemed not to notice her, one of the girls was the one who abducted her, and was the tannest and most fit looking of the both.

"The Gladers are growing reckless…."

"…but they don't understand."

"…not a Griever spotted in days."

"You say it like it's a bad thing. I'd be fine if i never saw another one of the shuck-faces in my life-"

The girl watched them attentively, not really following what they were saying, but she didn't really know what else to do.

"I don't understand why we still send the Runners out into the Maze if we already found the message." Said the tallest of the three, a lanky, pale girl with an accent, who had her slender fingers drumming on her hips anxiously and reddish, chocolate-brown hair cut choppy and short to her shoulders.

"Because we need to find a way out now more than ever, Bambi." The calm one replied.

This girl had kind, intelligent eyes, a deep blue against the brown of the glade with spots of light green in them.

"We should-" The one called Bambi cut off her sentence abruptly and slowly turned towards the girl sitting on the floor.

Bambi nudged Clara and she turned too.

The girl's heart filled with liquid dread and she attempted to scramble backwards on the floor, only to have her head thud against a lumpy, wooden wall.

All of their eyes were aimed at her now.

The one with kind eyes and a trustworthy face attempted to put her at ease. The girl could tell she was the leader.

"Whoa, whoa there, Greenie! I'm Amelia." Amelia bent down next to her with a smile, a silky, straight lock of caramel brown hair falling from her ponytail near her eyelashes. "You're safe now-"

"She tried to kidnap me!" The girl shouted, glaring at Clara accusingly.

"I did not!" Clara barked, brown eyes narrowing fiercely.

"You hit me in the head and dragged me out of a box." The girl deadpanned.

"You kicked me in the stomach-!"

"BECAUSE YOU HIT ME IN THE HEAD AND DRAGGED ME OUT OF A BOX-"

Bambi had to step in front of Clara who was losing her temper.

Clara only shrugged Bambi away, not meeting the Greenie's eyes.

"I save your ass from Reavers, and this is what i get?!" She murmured stonily to herself, but at that both Amelia and Bambi turned away form the new girl, to look at Clara incredulously.

"Wait, what?" Amelia interjected. "The Reavers are trying to steal Greenies again?"

Amelia groaned, scratching the back of her head. "They've been getting closer and closer to the Border, and they've been getting more and more territorial over the Deadheads-"

"They've been letting us cross the Border and go into the shallows of the Deadheads to bury bodies since the dawn of time," Clara said tiredly, leaning against a wall. She was more calm than before. "What do you mean?"

"I mean a Glader tried to bury her pet cat and she came back with a poison arrow in her shoulder, that's what i mean." Amelia said curtly.

The conversation had taken a serious turn, and suddenly the new girl felt like she was listening in on something private. "It took me and the other Med Jacks four days to get her working again. It barely grazed her, but still."

Clara stood up straighter, her hands balled into fists. "They already split the Glade in half, they dress in war paint and leaf hats like some uncivilized tribe of brutes, and they're starting to block the Maze Door shut on their side of the Border." Her voice had a razor edge to it. "An arrow to the shoulder? They want war, it's us or them. And what else would you expect from savages-"

"But they're not savages!" Bambi finally spoke up, and for the first time the new girl noticed that she had a slight, barely-there gap between her two front teeth. She too spoke with authority.

"They're human beings. And, Amelia," Bambi turned to the leader, who was sitting down in a chair with her hand clasped over her mouth, thinking, "you know their leader Tabitha. She came up in the first batch, just like you and me."

There was a pause, the two girls, one too aggressive and one too passive, waiting for their Leader's response.

"They've killed some of our own before." Amelia sighed at last. "They hate us, so there is no chance for peace. And Tabitha is not the girl we once knew her to be."

The new girl could see Bambi's eyes drop downwards in disappointment.

"But i'm not having a war with them either. We can't get caught up in this world, in _the Glade_. We need to focus on getting out of here." Amelia stood and even the new girl, who barely met her at all, felt her heart swell with pride.

She'd follow this Amelia girl anywhere, she naturally had the mannerisms of a leader, and a kind leader too.

"We put more patrols by the Border," Amelia began. "We start cutting back on rations in case something goes bad with the Reavers or the Box and we get held up in the Homestead."

All the girls were nodding at what she was saying, but the Greenie had no idea what half those words meant.

"The Reavers are probably going to try and barricade the two Doors being split by the Border shut once they finish blocking off the one on their side…" Clara said quietly.

Amelia rubbed her face. "I don't know. They really don't want to find a way out, do they?"

She was speaking more to herself than them.

She usually tried to remain the positive one, but times were getting tougher in the Glade and the Gladers often forgot that she wasn't a hero, she was just a kid too.

Everyone was silent, and in the silence the new girl could hear the bustle of "Gladers" outside the round, hut-like room.

"Maybe they're right." Bambi said.

Amelia's gaze snapped up to her immediately. "They're not. And you KNOW why-"

Amelia stopped mid-sentence, her breath catching on the word as she turned to the new girl, as if just now remembering that she was still there.

Amelia crouched down by the new girl and smiled brightly, as if they _weren't_ just discussing war plans, and the other girls rolled their eyes.

"Hey there, Greenie."

The new girl had gathered by now that this "Greenie" they kept talking about was her.

"Like i said, my name is Amelia, but you can call me Moo if you want. I run this place, we call it the Glade."

The Greenie could help but smile and trust this girl. Her voice was very persuasive.

"What's your name?" She asked.

"I…" the new girl started, and she felt like it was on the tip of her tongue.

She furrowed her brow, straining to remember, but she just couldn't.

Amelia nodded, knowingly. "Clara must've hit you pretty hard, usually Greenies remember their names by now."

She turned to the others. "We need to have a council meeting about the Reavers later, with all of the Keepers. I can't just keep only talking to the Keeper of Runners and the Keeper of Med Jacks. You guys are my friends, but i have to keep everyone informed." Her eyes scanned the room and she frowned. "And where on earth is Switch?!"

Clara shrugged, picking at her nails with a dagger nonchalantly. "Who ever really knows with her?"

Bambi cut in, more helpfully offering "Probably in the gardens about to leave with the Runners."

Their leader Amelia was stressed out. She was only fifteen years old, but with all these lives on her shoulders she looked closer to 17.

"Katrina wanted to show her something," Bambi added. "Something about a dead Griever."

Everyone went silent, and not even the sound of breathing could be heard.

It was the waiting to die, cut flowers, empty sort of silence, that threatened to swallow you whole.

_'A dead _what_?__'_ The new girl thought.

They weren't even speaking english.

Amelia cleared her throat and then forced herself to nod, as if to say _'We are not talking about this in front of a newbie.' _

"Okay, I'll get the Greenie to Switch. She'll give her something to let her remember her name, something to clear up her memories-"

"Stardream herb? That's dangerous stuff." Clara warned, still looking at her nails uninterestedly. "If Switch gives her too much, she'll go through the Changing."

The new girl glanced quickly between Amelia and Bambi, subconsciously starting to panic.

She didn't know what "the Changing" was, but it sounded painful, like it had something to do with werewolves or puberty.

Amelia flashed her a reassuring smile. "Switch knows what she's doing."

"Switch is playing with fire." Bambi retorted sharply, but in an amused, happy way.

Her voice sounded nice and the word 'British' came into the new girl's mind.

As the Greenie let herself be helped up and led out of the door by Amelia, she heard Clara scoff.

"Playing with fire? It's what she does best."

* * *

><p>The new girl could hardly contain herself, could hardly listen to what Amelia was saying, there was so much excitement going on around her.<p>

It was like a large village, everyone bustling around like work ants, but only composed of teenage females, milling about either sparring or carrying wood planks or shouting "Slinthead!" at each other from across the huts.

In her distracted state, the new girl almost lost track of Amelia as she turned sharply around a square of tall, greenish looking plants that some Gladers were harvesting.

"Those people are what we call 'Track Hoes'." Amelia spoke right in the Greenie's ear, and the new girl jumped a little.

She probably noticed the Greenie's gawking.

"They farm the land and take care of the crops. That Bambi girl is actually named 'Amber'. She's the leader of the Track Hoes, their Keeper." She explained slowly.

The Greenie picked up her pace to catch up with Amelia's long strides.

Amelia walked with more efficiency, but the Greenie noticed that she had a slight limp, and that she squirmed and started panicking whenever her right arm brushed anyone or anything.

Amelia had been hurt in the Glade.

The new girl only now realized that her own dirty blond hair was put into two french braids, and her small baby hairs were plastered to her forehead.

The sun was hot today, and it's position in the sky it looked like it was about 4:30 or so.

"I'm a Med Jack." Amelia continued, not even breaking a sweat. "I heal people and tend to injuries."

As they walked closer to one of the towering cement walls, the Greenie noticed that there was an opening in the side of it, a tall gap that some girls who were dressed in thin clothes like Clara's were entering.

What was in there?

Amelia took note of the Greenie's staring and veered them away from the opening, towards a field of corn.

"There are four rules in the Glade." Amelia waved to some of the Track Hoes who were hacking at the corn stalks and wearing big floppy straw hats. "Rule One: Everyone does their part. No slackers."

Amelia pushed a stalk of corn aside and it nearly smacked the Greenie in the face as it rebounded and she struggled to follow Amelia.

"Rule Two," She continued. "Never hurt another Glader. You have to trust each other. And you saw that Door right, the hole leading into the Maze?" Amelia turned around to make sure the Greenie was still following.

The Greenie nodded, scrunching up her nose as she concentrated on navigating through the thick field of corn.

"That's where rule three comes in. Rule Three: Never go outside the Glade, unless you're a Runner. Runners, like Clara, are supposed to go out there, they're tryin to find a way out."

They pressed on until at last they came into a clearing, much smaller than the vast plain where the box was, but still, surrounded by short walls of corn, there was a squarish piece of land where a smaller garden was.

Here the soil was richer and the things being grown were shorter and greener.

There was a dainty girl sitting in the middle of the garden, picking at some exotic looking flower, way too exotic to be growing in a glum place like the Glade.

"And the last rule is Rule Four:," Amelia stopped walking, signifying that this was their destination. "No Glader is allowed to cross the Border into Reaver territories."

There was that strange word again, "Reaver".

"What is a 'Reaver', exactly?" The Greenie asked, curiosity getting the better of her.

She was usually a very open, bubbly person, and that side was starting to show with Amelia.

Amelia sighed unknowingly, and looked out into the distance, past the field of corn, past the line of trees and out towards where the Border was.

"They're just people, like us. They just live under different rules and don't like us that much."

She was thinking about trying for a smile, but decided not to.

No smile could make the subject of Reavers sound any less terrifying.

"The Border runs between the West Door and the East Door, meaning that the Box, where you new Gladers come from, is neutral territory." She explained with ease.

The new girl wondered if Amelia ever got tired of teaching the Greenies the same things over and over again.

If she did, she didn't show it.

She acted like a mentor, an older sister, and she was the first kindness the Greenie had been shown in this place.

"On our side we have the Homestead and the Gardens. On the Reaver side they have the abandoned Bloodhouse and most of their territory is in the thick of the Deadheads, the woods." Amelia continued. "The Builders are still making animals pens of sorts over here, but the real stables are on their side, and a waste that is. They don't even use them, they released all their animals in the Deadheads so that they can hunt for sport."

They stood there talking for a while, until the sun was sitting on the edge of the Glade wall, threatening to drop down beneath it.

Amelia answered all of her (probably stupid) questions patiently, and told her about Keepers and Sloppers and even these nightmarish things called Grievers.

"Now," Amelia clapped her hands together, "Switch has been waiting long enough. Let's go get that name of yours."

* * *

><p>Switch was not as approachable as Amelia, and she made the Greenie nervous.<p>

Her hair was very wild and very dark (so much that it made even her light-olive skin tone seem rosy) with small, bent flowers peeking from the soft, wet-soil colored, loose tangles.

The Greenie imagined that she was what those barefoot dryads from those greek myths looked like, an odd, dark, unruly sort of beautiful, like a wide-eyed fawn or a forest fire.

And when her hazel eyes flicked up and down over the girl with slight intrigue, the Greenie felt that she was being read like a book.

Switch stood and her eyes settled on the new girl's face.

"Hey 'Melia. Who's this?"

Amelia chuckled nervously. "Uh, funny thing, we actually don't know."

Switch stood still, and the Greenie wasn't sure _what_ she was going to do.

Her jawline was refined like the clean, precise stroke of a paintbrush, but still soft and feminine, and there was a light freckle on her left cheek.

_'She doesn't trust me.'_ The Greenie thought.

Eventually Switch motioned her over to sit next to her in the dirt.

The Greenie walked over tentatively, and turned to look at Amelia for guidance, but with a small twist of her gut the Greenie realized Amelia had left.

She tried not to appear startled, she tried to stay brave, but she didn't know anyone else in this strange place and so far her only friend was Amelia, who was gone.

Switch extended a hand, and her eyes twinkled strangely, as if the Greenie amused her.

"I'm Night, Keeper of…" She trailed off, "things."

"I thought they said your name was Switch?" Said the Greenie, lowering herself into a kneeling position in the squishy soil.

"I know what they said. They lied." She arched her eyebrow. "My name is Night."

There was an awkward moment of uncertain silence.

"Hello…Night." The Greenie tried out the name at last.

Night chuckled and and the Greenie frowned in confusion.

"Don't look so afraid!" She exclaimed. "I was a little shaken too when i first got here, trust me."

Night picked a flower from the ground and plucked all the petals off one by one with cut-short, pretty, oval shaped finger nails.

Night extended her arm so that the flower stem was hovering over the Greenie's lips.

"Dinner is served." She said.

The new girl shook her head and leaned away.

Her instincts told her _not_ to put the thing a weird plant girl gave her in her mouth.

"What is it?" She questioned.

But Night only replied with. "Candy.", and the girl rolled her eyes, reluctantly chewing on it.

It tasted like perfume and fresh cut grass.

Even after just seconds of consuming it, her headache began to subside, the throbbing began to fade into a soft beat.

"Feeling better?" Night asked hopefully, wiping her hands on her pants.

The Greenie opened her mouth to reply, but instead, so smoothly and naturally that it startled her, the word "Katelynn" came out, and she clapped her hands over her lips.

It was like hearing someone else's voice come out of your mouth.

Both her and Night were smiling wildly now.

_Katelynn._

That was her name, and she knew it to be true.

Katelynn was her name and it was the truest thing she knew in the strange, unfamiliar place.

It was _her_ name, something of her own. It was her.

She turned to face Night, the gratitude showing on her face.

"Clara said that if i ate too much, i would go through a change-"

"Go through the Changing, you mean." Night corrected. "And Clara is a vicious rumor spreader, that happened _once_!"

Katelyyn would've believed the part about Clara if it weren't for Night's big grin when she'd said it.

She could tell that they were close friends and that Night was only joking.

"Besides," Night added casually, "I used the shock toxins in my herbs to revive her nervous system and she was fine within 3 hours, perfectly healthy."

"So you brought her back from the dead?" Katelynn implied.

"Something like that." Night humored her.

"You're a witch."

"I'm not a witch, I'm a healer."

"So why aren't you a Med Jack?"

"Because i'm also a Track Hoe and a Builder and, oh, on a good day, a Runner." Night turned back to her herbs. "That's why they call me Switch."

Katelynn was getting more comfortable with her, and suddenly, Night didn't seem to foreign after all.

"So you're like a hardcore, Super-Keeper?" She asked.

"Wha- No!" Night shoved her playfully in the shoulder. "You know what?! Maybe i am a witch! Yeah, i'm going to stick with that…"

She tried to mask the grin that was tugging at the corner of her lips. "I like you Greenie," She admitted, "But watch it."

There was a comfortable pause.

"Or else I'll put a spell on you." Night joked.

But Katelynn still had so many questions, and it was nearly nightfall.

Her mother always said she asked too many questions.

"The Reavers-" Kate began, but Night cut her off with an overdramatic groan.

"Oh you Greenies, always so fascinated with the Reavers. They're borderline crazy, they perform sacrifices and fight to the death, they live in weird little treehouse tribes. They raid our cattle and burn our crops, big whoop-"

"No, that's not what i meant, i just mean," Kate licked her dry, cracking lips. "If those… _Griever things_ are out there in the Maze, why is it such a bad idea to close the Doors like the Reavers are trying to do? Don't you guys get supplies to live from the Box anyways-"

"Yeah," Night explained calmly, "But we have to get out of this hell hole. They're gonna kill us anyways."

Kate started nodding, but then paused.

"Night," She began slowly. "Who's 'they?"

Night had said _'they'_.

To her horror she started to realize her entire situation, and it was like someone had lifted the curtain, it was like finding out your dad, who kissed you goodnight, was actually a serial killer.

She didn't remember anything but her name, she'd been sent to a giant maze in a metal box, there were no adults here.

There _was_ a 'they', a 'they' much bigger than her.

Night swallowed and her eyes got dark and maybe a little melancholic.

"The Creators." Night answered, realizing she'd said too much, but not stopping. "We decoded a couple of maps that the Runners had made of the Maze seven months ago. And you know what? They were mocking us."

Night's voice held none of the false hope or reassurance that Amelia's had.

She wasn't negative, but nor was she overly optimistic.

She told things how they were.

Kate was scared to ask, but she did anyways. "What did it say?"

The question hung between them like a string waiting to be cut before Night spoke again.

"'Hickory dickory dock, the girl ran up the clock.'"

Night was reciting a children's rhyme, it didn't make any sense, but Kate didn't stop her.

"'The clock struck forty five, then the girls all died. Hickory dickory…." Night trailed off, gaze averting from Kate and resting on the setting sun instead

"Dock." Kate finished. "'The clock struck forty five'? What does that even mean?"

Night stood, brushing her hands on her jeans, but there was still soil on the crescent moon outlines of her fingernails.

"Once we hit forty five Gladers, then we die." Night said almost unnervingly calm. "The Runners are trying harder than ever now to find a way out-"

"How many Gladers do you have now?" Katelynn knew she was asking way too many questions, but Night didn't seem to mind.

She liked the company.

Night paused. "With the Reavers included? With you? Forty two." Catching Katelynn's panicked expression Night was quick to put her at ease. "Don't worry, though. We only get one Glader every month, so we have 3 more months ahead of us. That's plenty of time."

But Night sounded more like she was trying to convince herself than like she was trying to convince Kate.

The mood suddenly got very somber between the two girls.

_'I just got here and they're telling me i'm going to die.'_ Kate had the twisted urge to burst out laughing.

"Do the Gladers know?" She asked at last.

To her surprise, Night replied with "No.", then she looked right at Katelynn.

"Only a few Keepers know. Amelia didn't want anyone to panic and join the Reavers." Night kicked at a lump of dirt by her foot. "As if the Reavers would actually let them join. They're too secretive. They call us 'soft bloods'. Even with our hands raised, they'd kill us on sight-"

"You said the Gladers aren't supposed to know though." Said Katelynn. "So why did you tell me?"

Night smiled genuinely, like she couldn't help herself, and that was a rare thing from Night.

"I told you Greenie. I like you."

Kate couldn't help but feel special at that, because as she walked out of the corn field with Night, all the other Gladers were staring.

Night looked so young, it was hard to think that was a Keeper, much less the Keeper of Keepers.

Kate could tell Night didn't trust people easily, but there she was, trusting her.

"I'm late." Night said softly, and Kate remembered Bambi saying something about Night having to go into the Maze because of a dead Griever.

"Oh, sorry. Do you want me to speed up?" Kate offered.

"Nah, not really." Night said, and Kate smiled. "Katrina can wait, she's a big girl."

* * *

><p>part ii: For The Night Is Dark And Full Of Terrors<p>

Night had said that Katrina was a Runner, one of the toughest and fastest in the Glade, almost as fast as the Keeper of the Runners herself, Clara.

So Katrina was not was Kate had expected at all.

By the time they walked to where Katrina was, waiting by one of the gaping Maze Doors, the sun was so low on the horizon that the sky was that gritty, dirty, dark orange color, and they could barely see their hands in front of them.

Yet Kate could still see that Katrina was the most beautiful girl she'd ever seen, even with being covered in dirt and sweat and with a small frown twisting her face.

It was unnatural, and it made her tattered Runner's gear look out of place.

Katrina didn't even acknowledge Kate, she just stepped towards Night and spoke quickly. "It's gone, Switch."

She knew it was wrong, but Kate was kind of disappointed that the massive death-machine's carcass was missing, she was curious as to what a Griever looked like.

Night had said "like a really scary, killer-snail", but that didn't give much of a visual aid.

Katrina was on the bustier side with slender, but fit, legs and hair tumbling down her shoulders like black silk.

Her long, dark eyelashes made shadows like spider lace on her cheekbones as she looked downwards shamefully.

"What do you mean it's gone?" Night questioned. "Was it even dead in the first place-?!"

"I don't know, i don't know!" Katrina burst out. "It's just _gone_."

Neither of them was paying much attention to Kate, and Night was yelling something about how "a one eyed disabled man couldn't lose a 500 pound Griever, Katrina", so Kate stepped off to the side, a glimmering within the Maze Door catching her eye like someone flipping a shiny coin.

"Hey guys…" Kate began, but they were deep in an argument.

Just a little bit behind the Door there was a small trail of slime, shimmering in the dark.

Looking around Kate stepped through the Maze Door, terrified that the sound of her heart hammering in her ears would give her away.

Her foot was trembling when it crossed the line between the Glade and the unknown.

The trail of slime bent around the corner of the Maze, the wounded creature had slithered off like a snake back into its hole.

She turned to face them, and realized how much darker it was in the Maze than where Katrina and Night were.

"Guys! Just look!" She pointed towards the slime trail, eager to leave this place, even though she wasn't even in that deep. "We can follow the trail and find the Griever-"

_BAM._

All the air rushed from her lungs and Kate felt her eyeballs roll a back a little.

She was rendered motionless, until she finally sucked in air into her lungs and looked up.

She was on the ground, back in the Glade, and someone had tackled her.

An asian girl with chubby cheeks and broad shoulders had her pinned to the ground and a knife ice-cold on the soft skin of her neck.

_'She's wearing Runner's gear.'_ Kate struggled to think through the pain. It felt like someone had stuck a metal rod up her spine. _'She must've been running out of the Maze.' _

Kate felt some of the pressure on her insides release as Night and Katrina shoved the girl off of her.

"Whoa, whoa!" Night had her hands out as if to protect Kate as Katrina helped Kate up.

But the angry girl looked like a bull ready to charge.

"She didn't know, she's just a Greenie, Karen!"

The Karen girl sprung forth, slamming her foot down right next to Kate's face.

Kate rolled to the side, feeling the whoosh of air in her ear and she scrambled backwards on dry, scraped palms.

If she hadn't moved, the bridge of her nose would be lodged in her brains right about now.

"It doesn't matter, Switch!" Karen boomed.

Her short, angular-cut, black hair was disheveled from tackling Kate. "Rule number three: Only Runners are allowed in the-"

"Rule two: Never hurt another Glader!" Night spat back.

Karen pushed up the long sleeves of her tunic so that they were scrunched up above her elbows.

"No offense, Switch, but i think you're a little out of your range. What are you again?" Karen smiled, a sickly baring of her teeth, and Kate saw that her canine tooth was missing. "A Track Hoe? A Med Jack? A-"

"I'm a Keeper." Night said with authority. "_Your Keeper_, and you need to slim it."

"Yeah." Karen's eyes were darting around her surroundings fast like a cornered animal. "Yeah, that's right, you're a Keeper. And she's a rule breaker-!" Karen started towards Kate, who was back pedaling slowly away from the group of girls, away from the safety of the torch light Katrina was holding.

"Look." Katrina said defiantly. "Amelia is coming over any second now, and unless you want a night in the Slammer, i suggest you leave her be-"

"Don't tell me what to do, beauty queen!" Karen snapped, and in a millisecond, Katrina went from protective and concerned to offended.

"Hey, whoa-" Night began, attempting to neutralize the situation, but Katrina was already stepping towards her fellow Runner and she didn't even need a weapon to look deadly.

"Do _not _call me beauty queen."

"Well, no offense," Karen said again, unsheathing a machete from her backpack and pointing it at Kate. "But the Greenie has no right to-"

Night stepped directly in front of the blade, it nearly piercing the skin underneath her chin.

It reflected the flickering glint of the torchlight's fire in it, and Kate was positive it had a mean bite.

"Leave the Greenie alone, alright? And saying 'no offense' doesn't _not_ make you a shuck face, Karen." Night paused, still not even bothering to glance at the blade that was at her neck. "You're still a shuck face, Karen."

Then the perfect worst thing that could happen happened.

Those giant stone Doors, like the one directly behind Karen, _moved_.

It defied all physics, but there it went, and with a great rumble of the Glade floor, Karen fell into a squatting position, and Kate ran away from the stumbling group of Gladers as far as her legs would take her.

"I'M GOING TO KILL YOU GREENIE!" Karen yelled and Katelynn believed her.

"Kate, wait!" Night called, but Katelynn's heart was pitter pattering like a humming bird's and when she heard the footsteps coming from behind her, she knew they were Karen's and she ran even faster.

* * *

><p>Kate didn't even know where she was going, she just ran.<p>

The second she took off, the second she felt the burning ache of acid in her calves, she knew she shouldn't have.

But she was scared, not of Karen or even dying.

Kate just _really_ didn't want to get stabbed.

But now she probably was going to anyways, because she was in a random area, the grass thick underfoot, and Karen was calling "Come out, come out wherever you are!"

The dark of night helped feed her fears too, and she knew she was being watched (much like an animal being hunted down), but Kate was still glad it was so dark.

This way no one could see how afraid she was, and right now she was so scared so couldn't even bring herself to cry.

All she had was uncertainty, fear, and Karen's voice mocking her.

Someone else joined Karen, another girl with a high, frilly voice calling out "Greenie, Greenie, Greenie!"

Kate stumbled over a small hill and she knew she was in the wrong place now.

The Glade was flat and empty.

This place was dark and full of noises.

She didn't even noticed she'd crossed the border.

Kate was in the Deadheads.

_Reaver territory._

Now Amelia, Night, or she even would've settled for Clara, couldn't come and save her, it was against the Reaver treaty.

Dread crept over her body like a blanket of fog over a hill, and she shuddered hard, biting the inside of her cheek until she tasted blood and willing her exhausted legs to move faster.

Then there was a voice directly in her ear.

"GREENIE." Karen boomed, and then burst out laughing as Kate jumped backwards, hitting a tree.

The Deadheads were too dense to be running that fast in, and she was bound to run into something.

Kate started panting, whirling around to find Karen, too terrified to even contain her heavy breaths.

Then she saw a shadow, an odd shaped tree that had been standing there, w_atching her_, for the last couple of seconds.

And then it _moved_.

Kate yelped, and Karen chuckled walking towards her.

"Oh come on Greenie!" Karen said when Kate tried to run away again, but the forest was too hilly and she tripped hard, the flesh of her knee being torn up and digging into a sharp, knurled branch on the floor.

"Where'd you go? I won't hurt you Greenie, just come out." Karen coaxed darkly, and Kate sobbed silently into the ground when she heard the sharp noise of Karen's machete clinking on a rock right beside her face.

The pain of the branch pressed to her bleeding flesh made Kate grit her teeth, but she couldn't get up now, Karen was nearby.

Kate tried not to tremble when she made up the shape of a skeleton's hand in the soft soil beside her.

They call it "the Deadheads" for a reason, and right now she was in someone else's grave, in a ditch.

Kate didnt know how long she was waiting there, but all the while she was wondering what it was going to be like to die, wondering whether or not she should just jump out and face her death.

_'Stop that Katelynn!'_ She hissed at herself, forcing her hand into a fist. _'Shut up, shut up! You're not going to die! You've got to fight, your life is worth fighting for.' _

Eventually the beat of her heart stopped pulsing in her head, and she realized that there was another beat:

the beat of drums.

The tears dried on her cheeks, making her face feel tight, and her sweat had gone cold.

Kate shakily stood, cringing at the squishy noise her knee made as she removed the stick that had penetrated it. It was more numb than painful.

And the sound of drums was close.

_'Night?! Amelia?!'_ Her heart swelled with hope and she carefully followed the sound with a newfound persistence, climbing out of the ditch which was deeper than she originally thought it was.

Ahead, she saw the soft orange glow of bonfire light, shining on the tops of individual bush leaves like spots of light from fireflies.

She crouched down, warily edging closer and closer.

It was too late when she saw what was just behind the bushes.

This was no rescue.

This was the Reavers' camp.

She must've discovered the way in when she'd fallen into that shallow ravine, the Gladers had been searching for this place for ages.

"No." She couldn't help but say aloud, clasping a hand and squeezing it over her mouth tight as the savages brought forth a screaming girl holding her above their heads like an animal with it's leg's bound.

Tears filled her eyes, but she couldn't look away, her limbs had turned to stone.

_It was Karen._

Karen was withering around hideously in their grasps like someone going through the Changing, and crying like an infant, snot running from her nose.

It was the hardest thing Kate ever had to watch and every muscle in her body seemed ready to spring forward, screamed at her to _'Do something, you coward.' _

And Kate wanted too, so badly, but she caught sight of Karen's machete that they'd thrown on the floor and she remembered that Karen had tried to stick her with it.

And besides, there were at least twenty of them around this bonfire alone.

The chanting got faster and faster and the drums louder and louder, building and building, and Karen's cries increased ten fold as they brought her towards the fire.

_'No, no, no. Please, please no.' _

Kate wanted to cover her ears, it was like having to listen to the squeals of a lamb before you slaughtered it, and she wanted to run, run out of the Glade and out of her skin.

And then, quicker than Kate could look away, they pulled back her neck by her hair and began to whoop and whistle as one of the masked ones shoved a blunt wooden spear straight down Karen's throat.

The blood, thick and glistening, spurted up like a fountain around Karen's face with a bubbling, gurgling noise, and her eyes looked as if they'd bulge out of her skull, which was dangling loosely from her neck.

Kate choked out a loud sob, and sprinted away from the scene, not even caring to check if they'd heard her, too scared to look back.

And she ran and she ran and she ran.

* * *

><p>Even when Kate was far, far away from the Deadheads, out in the clearing by the Box, she still felt those dark trees looming over her like hands, still felt like someone was chasing her, still felt Karen's death on her skin and reflecting in her glassy eyes.<p>

Even when she was only a few feet away from the large group of girls standing by the Border, near the Box with torches, she couldn't bring herself to slow down, she couldn't feel her legs.

And when Night reached out to stop her, she was nearly toppled over too.

"Kate!" Night said, and Kate buried her face in Night's shoulder, hugging her so tight it was painful, and crying silently so that no one would know.

She hadn't imagined that death would look like that, she imagined Karen would look brave or at least like she understood what was going to happen, but Karen's face was terrified and confused like a child's and her body hadn't looked like a person at all, it'd looked like a sack of flesh and bones, lolling about lifelessly as they shook it in the air like a trophy.

And the _blood_.

There was so much blood.

It made Kate want to vomit.

Now, Kate knew that the Glade wasn't the safe haven from the Maze that Amelia and Bambi had made it out to be.

The Monsters were all here. The Monsters weren't the Grievers, they were the other girls.

She felt Night stroking her hair and murmuring something, and she tried to stop her breaths from quavering.

Bambi ushered the crowd of girls away from Kate and away from the Box, telling them to go to the Homestead.

Kate felt Amelia's eyes on her, and she knew that she was waiting for an explanation, so Kate pushed Night away from her, swallowing to stop her shaking.

"Karen is dead." Kate was surprised at how steady and strong her voice was, but she was positive that her eyes were swimming. "The Reavers got her, I saw it with my own eyes. I-I don't know what happened to the other girl-"

"Nadine is fine." Amelia said with an unsure, small smile. She was trying to comfort Kate. "She's in the slammer. She said that…"

Now all of the Keepers that remained averted their sights to the ground.

"She said that you killed Karen." Bambi finished.

Night was quick to defend Kate. "An unarmed Greenie against a trained Runner with a machete? Are you kidding me?!"

"Calm down, Night. No one believed her in the first place." Clara stepped forward, placing a hand on Night's arm.

"Yeah, i mean, _it's Nadine_." A girl that Kate didn't know said. "Last week she said that Shannon rode a Griever-"

"Enough!" Amelia silenced everyone. All eyes were on her.

She really did have all their respect.

"We didn't come here for Kate."

Kate frowned when they all started nodding in agreement.

"You didn't?"

"_I_ came here for you." Night clarified with a smile.

"We came here for the Box." Clara said quietly. "We heard the alarm about forty minutes ago, you were still in the Deadheads. It's coming up tonight."

Kate turned to Night. "I thought you said they came up once every month, not twice in a day?!"

"I know, I know!" Night said irritably, but underneath that, Kate could see the worry in her eyes. "But relax, we'll still have 2 months to get out of the Maze, even with another Greenie. That'll only make 43 Gladers."

Kate nodded and tried to stay calm, but something didn't sit right with the Box coming up in the dead of the night.

Then the hole in the ground was filled with a metal object, like liquid mercury rising up in a pool, and a deep boom sounded from beneath their feet.

The Box had come up.

Amelia, usually so kept together and kind, turned to Bambi and said bluntly, "Get the Greenie out of here."

Bambi walked over, gesturing for Kate to follow her back to the Homestead. "Come on, Greenie. Boss's orders-"

"That's one ugly girl." Kate heard a Night say under her breath.

"Klunk…" Amelia whispered to herself, and before Bambi could grab hold of her, Kate had broken free and run over to the edge of the Box, looking in.

_'If curiosity killed the cat, then Kate is a dead cat,'_ her mother used to joke.

But as Kate looked in the Box, she'd wished she hadn't.

In there were three people laying down and looking dazed, and not just any people, three _boys_.

_Three._

That made forty five people in the Glade.

The clock had struck forty five, and for all Kate knew, they could be dead by morning.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: Whoo hoo!**

**That finishes chapter one! I can hardly contain myself, i'm so excited to see the interactions your characters will have with the boys in the next chapter! This was kinda just like an intro to Group C's Glade, as it is slightly bigger and VERY different from Group A's. **

**I'm sorry i couldn't get all your characters in this chapter, but I'll be sure to get them in the next one.**

**This chapter mostly focused on Katelynn, and i'm going to have each chapter center around one individual character. **

**Also I have something really cool planned that's going to happen and i can't wait to write it.**

**_Please review_ and tell me what you think or what you want to happen!**

**If you have any questions about the way i wrote your character or the Reavers, I urge you to ask me! I'm happy to explain.**

**-nightswitch**

**UPDATE: 01-28-15**

**I just wanted to reassure you guys that i have not given up on this story and continue to be extremely invested in your wonderful characters!**

**For the past two weeks i have been struggling with my mental illness, my injury, and my classes; i am just now returning to school.**

**As for this week, i have a film to make and 2 other major projects, so until this stressful period is over, i will most likely not have a chance to write.**

**Thank you for being so patient and considerate.**

**Addressing the owners of the OCs chosen: **

**If you wish to know the general direction i plan to steer this story or have suggestions/input, PM me! Or, if you're a person (like me) who prefers to be surprised and not know the ending of the story, then please don't feel obligated to message me or anything. **

**-nightswitch**


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